Improvement in machines for tilling the soil



Steam Plow. I

Patented Aug. I4, 1866.

Inventor:

4 witnesses= UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SYLVESTER WOODBRIDGE, OF BENIOIA, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR TILLING THE SOIL..

pecilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,242, dated August 14, 1866.

To all whom t 'may concern Be it known that I, SYLvEsTER Woon- BRIDGE, of Benicia, in the county of Solano and State of Oalifornia, have invented a new and Improved Apparatus for the Tillage of the Soil, which l denominate a Fallower; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this speciiicatiou, in which- Figure l is an isometrical projection, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section in the vertical plane represented by the line w fr of Fig. 1.

The nature of the invention consists in the mode of combining and operating the tools which are provided for loosening and turning over the soil. The tools are of any desired form or character, such as spades, picks, or forks, and are connected by cranks, rods, and gears with each other and with the driving machinery, lthat they may be made to perform their offices while the apparatus is driven over the ground to be cultivated.

A A A A is a frame having at one end a tongue for draft and at the other a seat for the driver. Two inner beams, B B, extend from the rear cross-bar, A', forward and parallel with the side beams, A, between and within which they are, and are supported at their front ends by the bars a a, extendingfrom them to the front cross-bar, A", of the main frame. Resting in journal-boxes on A and B, on either side of the machine, are the bearings of the axle of the driving-wheel or cylinder O, which may be smooth upon its surface, or corrugated, or have ridges or teeth or any appliance that may be found necessary to give it such hold upon the surface of the soil as will cause it to revolve. On each end of the cylinder is an internal spur-gear, D, taking into and driving -the pinion E on the crankshaft F. If an external gear be used it will be necessary to interpose another pinion between the wheel D and the pinion E, in order to give to this last a revolution in the same direction as the driving-wheel. This is essential to the proper action of the machine.

rlhe tiller-shaft G, so called because it carries the implement to be used, has its bearin gs on the tiller-frame B B. This tiller-frame is hinged to the Vbeams B B by a collar on the crank-shaft F, so that the distance between the bearing of the crank-shaft and the beariu g of the tiller-shaft shall be constant, while at the same time the tiller frame and shaft with the implements may be elevated or depressed as occasion may require.

The tillershaft G has at each end a crank, set at right angles with each other, of the same radius as the crank upon the shaft F, and the cranks on F and G, on either side of the machine, are connected by the parallel rods H H, so that however much the tiller-frame may be elevated or depressed the connecting-rods H H will always be parallel with it. On the tiller-shaft G are two or more cranks of any required radius (the drawings show four) so set that the angles they successively form with each other shall be equal to three hundred and sixty degrees divided by the number ofcranks and these cranks are so constructed, where three or more are used, as that, instead of having the arms extended radially from the line of the shaft to the crank-pins, each two contiguous crank-pins have one common arm extending directly between them in the line of the hypotenuse of the angle formed by radial arms, as represented in the drawings.

To the crank-pins of the tiller-shaft G are attached the heads of the tools to be used. (In the drawings these are spades.) The tools or implements have long handles passing through guide-slots in the plate K, supported by the standards L, erected on the tiller-frame B B'. It may be found expedient in practice to substitute for the guide-plate K, with its slots, a shaft similar to the tiller-shaft G, to which the upper part of the handles may be secured, as they are below near the implement; and it may also be expedient to have the handles extend from the tools in a direction horizontal, or nearly so, as in the case where hoes or picks would be employed. In such a case the guideplate or shaft, as the case might he, would lie between the tiller-shaft and the driving-shaft, either on the tiller-frame B or above or below it, the change of position not at all affecting the general nature of my invention, as hereinbefore set forth.

Levers M M, connected by a cross-tie, M', behind the drivin g-cylinder and under the control of the driver at his seat, have their fulcrums at N N, and are hooked to the front end of the tiller-frame at O O, for the purpose of elevating or depressing it, and are kept in p0- sition by a staple passing around' the cross-tie M into the holes in the upright P.

The bars a a, which sustain the front ends ot' the beams B B, have each a ange, a a', upon their vertical portions, w here they are sustained by the front cross-bar, A, which serves to prevent lateral motion of the tiller-t'rame B B. y

Having thus fully described iny invention, what I claim as nentherein, and desire to sef eure by Letters Paten t, is-

1. The tiller-franie B', tiller-shaft G, and guide-plate or shaft K, in combination with the crank on the tiller-shaft G and crank-shaft l means hereiubefore described and set forth of operating agricultural implements by cranks, rods, guide-plates, or shafts, substantially as set forthf 1 SYLVESTER WOODBRIDGE.

Witnesses:

A. L. STlLEs, J AMES FoRsMAN. 

